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Want to know if you can file for a divorce if you have no proof of adultery in New Jersey? Read to find out what you can and can't do.

Can you file for a divorce if you have no proof of adultery in New Jersey?

Adultery in New Jersey is plead and proven in two different ways. First in the divorce complaint, you can file for a cause of action of adultery, and that means that you have identified the person with whom your spouse has committed adultery, that person is referred to as the co-respondent. You have to name the co-respondent in the divorce complaint, and you have to serve them with a copy of the divorce complaint, and they too must account for their behaviour with the spouse. Now of course, the difficulty with that is, in circumstances as you said, when you don’t know who that person is and the litigant who wants to get divorced, very much wants to prove that their spouse committed adultery.

So if you want to divorce but have no concrete proof of adultery, and you can’t identify the person, you can also file based on extreme cruelty and just identify that the act of cruelty was committing adultery. Once you do that you don’t have the same stringent requirement of bringing in the third party who committed adultery with your spouse, but you do still have the requirement of proof if the issue ever got to the point of a trial.

Now in New Jersey, 98 per cent of our cases are settled, they do not actually go before a judge for a trial, so the question is often raised, well if I plead this, do I actually have to prove in the course of a trial? Most of the time when people plead in their divorce complaint, something has happened, we don’t normally litigate the history of the marriage and the reasons for the breakdown of the marriage. We usually are focused on things such as support and custody, assets, liabilities, things that has accumulated that need to be divided between the parties. But if at some point you don’t have your case settled and you’d have to go before a judge, yes you will have to prove whatever you have plead as your cause of action. If you have plead extreme cruelty and you said that adultery was the reason why your spouse was cruel to you, and you are entitled to a divorce action, you must prove adultery in some form, even if you don’t have the name of the person who was involved in the adultery.

Allison C. Williams is a matrimonial and family law attorney serving Short Hills New Jersey. Her practice places an emphasis on complex child welfare matters. www.familylawyersnewjersey.com

About Allison C. Williams

As the founder and owner of Williams Law Group, LLC, Allison’s practice focuses exclusively on matrimonial law and family law. Allison’s practice has an emphasis on complex Child Welfare matters, including representation in DYFS/DCPP matters, representation of resource family parents and consultation to matrimonial counsel regarding DCPP investigations and issues. Additionally, Allison covers areas from divorce, child custody and support to domestic violence and grandparent visitation.

Allison’s favorite part about being a family law attorney is problem solving with families through the legal process. Listening and caring every day, Allison serves as the voice for her clients, crafting innovative approaches to problems and helping them navigate the often confusing and jagged path of the family court system. As the chief legal strategist of Williams Law Group, each and every client has Allison’s eyes and ears, as she works with the firm’s talented team of attorneys and paralegals to find new solutions for the families the firm serves.

Allison is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) where she is part of the Child Welfare Section and has served on the Family Law Executive Committee. Allison is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), an elite national organization, which promotes professionalism and excellence in the practice of family law, and whose Fellows gain admittance by taking a rigorous national exam, demonstrate substantial experience in complex family law matters, are recognized by the bench and bar as a leading practitioner, and has demonstrated substantial involvement in the matrimonial field through standards that advance the cause of matrimonial law. She is certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Matrimonial Law Attorney, where she serves as a member of the New Jersey Board on Attorney Certification Matrimonial Committee, determining candidate eligibility certification for recognition as a practitioner in matrimonial law.

As an established leader in the field of child welfare law, Allison has appeared on several media outlets including Katie, the talk show hosted by Katie Couric, News 12 New Jersey (New Jersey’s 24-hour cable news channel) Pix11 and Chasing News. Additionally, Allison lectures frequently for professional organizations, including ICLE, and her writings have appeared in the New Jersey Lawyer, The New Jersey Family Lawyer and in other publications statewide. Allison was recognized as a New Jersey Super Lawyer in 2017 for the fourth consecutive year and Williams Law Group was listed as the 14th fastest growing law firm out of 500 by Law Firm 500.